Late rally by Immaculate paves the way to win over Brookfield

Jon Chik

Updated 12:09 am, Saturday, January 25, 2014

BROOKFIELD -- It's usually not a good thing when your team leads for just 27 seconds of an entire game.

Fortunately for the Immaculate High boys basketball squad, it held the advantage at the only time of the game that counts: The end. The Mustangs pushed their record north of .500 and captured a critical 44-39 win at Brookfield High School Friday night.

The Mustangs (5-4, 2-3 SWC) took their first and only lead of the contest with just 27 ticks to go just after Mike Woods narrowly missed a layup while being fouled. Shooting one-and-one and up against a raucous Brookfield (2-7, 0-5 SWC) student section, Woods calmly sank both free throws to give his team a 38-36 advantage, a lead it would not relinquish.

Latest Sports Video

"I told the kids we came in flat, and Brookfield was playing hard," Immaculate coach Nelson Mingachos said. "We fought our way back in there and we went into halftime down by (four), and I told the kids if we can cut the lead to two by the end of the third, then in the fourth we'll make our run, and that's what they did. But only leading by 27 seconds? I don't like it."

Woods may have had the honors of finally putting his team on top, but the night belonged to Joey Wallace, who notched a game-high 23 points, more than doubling any other player.

"We came out bad. The first half we didn't play good, but our defense picked us up," said Immaculate captain Darel Bowman, who scored seven points. "We wanted this game bad, but we can't come into games thinking it's going to be handed to us. We've got to come in working."

Just two seconds after the Mustangs took their first lead, the Bobcats had a chance to draw even but were unable to make the first of their one-and-one free throws with 25 seconds to go. After a wild scramble for the rebound, Brookfield turned the ball over on an over-and-back.

Immaculate boosted its lead after Darrius Smith was fouled and subsequently converted both free throws on his one-and one attempt for the 40-36 lead.

Brookfield's response was a 3-pointer from Tom Walker with 10 seconds left, bringing the Bobcats back to within 40-39, but Immaculate continued to shoot lights out from the foul line, as Wallace drained four straight to close out the win at 44-39.

In total, the Mustangs drained all of their final 10 free throws.

"We talk about it every day at practice," Mingachos said. "Foul shots is the difference of winning and losing, and today they went in and thank God."

The two sides were no strangers to one another -- or close finishes -- as Brookfield claimed a 48-42 double overtime win over Immaculate in a non-league clash on Dec. 26.

Since that win, however, Brookfield has dropped six straight, and this one was especially tough, given that it led for nearly the entire game.

"All of our games have been defensive," Brookfield coach John Fleming said. "We've been holding teams to 40, 44 points and our problem is we can't score. We always have one quarter where we can't get the ball in the hoop and that's what hurts us."

By its own admission, Brookfield came out flat in the first quarter and the result was an 18-7 lead for Brookfield going into the second, as Mustafa Sakhi notched six of his team-high 11 points in the opening stanza.

The Mustangs chipped away at the lead the rest of the way, including a 7-0 run to close out the first half to creep closer at 21-17.

"We know that we're in every game and sooner or later we'll get a break. It's difficult," Fleming said. "We have a tough schedule. The SWCs are tough, and it doesn't get any easier next week. We just need to get that one really critical basket to turn things around."